Protoshock
by goodpie2
Summary: Alex Mercer and Jack Ryan fight their way through Rapture, one with Plasmids, one with Blacklight. EXPECT SPORADIC UPDATES- especially since I can't find my copy of Bioshock anywhere.


My second work, and probably the one I'll work on more- it's easier when you don't have to come up with the plot on your own. I'm adding a few things, mostly explanations of how things like Vita-Chambers and EVE hypos work, but I plan to stick to the game. There'll be a lot more splicers than in the game, so that Alex and Jack don't just slaughter them all, but wherever I can, I hope to follow the game to the letter.

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"Hey, wake up."

"Forget him, boyo. You need to get out of there before a splicer finds you."

"I can't just leave him here. What if the splicers find him?"

Alex Mercer opened his eyes to see a young man in a tan sweater standing over him, holding a wrench.

"Hey. It's about time you woke up. We've got to get moving," the man said.

Alex stood up and looked around him. He was in a large room with stone walls and a wooden floor, across which ran a maroon carpet. Behind him was a balcony with a staircase leading to it on either side. One each side of him was a pillar, and a red banner was hanging between each pillar and the wall next to it. In front of him was a door, above which was a sign saying "Welcome to Rapture. Opportunity Awaits." Behind that door... Alex shuddered. _Water. _It wasn't raining- they were _under water. _

"Where are we? And who are you?" Alex asked the young man.

"My name is Jack. We're in an underwater city called Rapture."

"An underwater city? Oh shit."

"What? What's wrong?" Jack asked.

"I um, don't like water. At all." Mercer explained.

"Well, so far, there hasn't been much water in the city."

"Good."

Mercer looked around- the place was in ruins. One of the staircases was on fire, there were piles of rubble all over the place, chairs and furniture were thrown about, and the switch to the door was obviously shorted out.

"What happened here?"

"I don't really know. I only just got here a few minutes ago myself."

"Enough chitchat, lads. You've got to get going. But first, there should be a Gatherer's Garden nearby with an electrobolt plasmid. Find it," said a voice with an Irish accent on a radio Jack was carrying.

At this, Jack stood up and walked around. Spotting a pink neon sign saying "Plasimids" with a hand facing up the staircase, he went up to the balcony. In front of it was a vending machine like object with a large bottle full of red fluids and an enormous syringe.

"Now, ya see that red bottle? Would you kindly fill up the syringe with the liquid inside it and inject it into your arm?" the Irishman requested.

Without hesitation, Jack did so.

Mercer watched as electricity coursed through Jack's body, flying from his hands. Jack staggered and doubled over.

"Steady now," said the radio, "Your genetic code is being rewritten. Just hold on and everything will be fine!"

However, it appeared that whoever was on the radio was wrong, as Jack stumbled over the rail of the balcony and fell to the ground.

Mercer jumped over the balcony and knelt down to check Jack's pulse.

_Good. He's still alive._

As he was debating what to do, a pair of men wearing masks came into the room.

"This little fish looks..." he spotted Alex, and screamed, "You FUCKER! That's OUR ADAM!"

He raised the piece of pipe he was holding and charged at Mercer, who easily dodged the blow and punched the man in the head, crushing his skull. Just as the second man was about to attack, a long, low moan emanated through the halls.

"Shit!" yelled the masked man, then ran from the room.

A few moments after the man's exit, a little girl wearing a blue and white dress and carrying what appeared to be a gun with a gigantic needle instead of a barrel entered the room. After a moment, Mercer realized that this was not an ordinary little girl- her eyes were nothing more than glowing yellow orbs, and her skin had a greenish tinge to it. He was just about to kill this monster when what appeared to be a man in a large, old fashioned diving suit wielding a huge drill entered the room.

"Look Mr. Bubbles!" the little girl exclaimed, pointing at Jack, "It's an angel! I can see light coming from his belly. Wait a minute. He's still breathing. It's all right- I know he'll be an angel soon."

With this, the little girl thing and the man in the diving suit left the room.

Shortly thereafter, Jack groaned and stood up.

"You alright boyo?" inquired the Irishman. "First time plasmid's a real kick from a mule. But there's nothing like a fistfull of lightning, now is there?"

At this, Mercer looked at Jack's hands, and noticed that his left hand seemed to have electricity running through it.

"What was that?" he asked, "You said it rewrote his genetic code?"

"That's right, lad. Plasmids rewrite your DNA to give you new abilities. Since you're gonna be stuck here for a while, you should consider splicing up too."

"Ummm...I'm not sure about that." Mercer replied. Since he wasn't human, and these "plasmids" were almost certainly designed to affect _human _DNA, Mercer was unsure as to how the plasmids would interact with the Blacklight Virus. Unless they started running into enemies that were much tougher, he preferred not to take the chance.

"Suit yourself," said the radio.

"By the way, who are you?"

"Me? I'm Atlas. I lead the rebellion against that tyrant Andrew Ryan."

"Rebellion? Is that why this place is in ruins?"

"Aye. The city used to be beautiful, even if it was run by a monster like Ryan."

"How long has the civil war been going on?" asked Jack.

"About a year now."

With this explanation, they decided it was time to move on. Jack used his new electrobolt to power the broken door, and they walked through into a glass tunnel. Alex looked around him and shuddered- he was surrounded by water.

Suddenly, the fuselage of a plane fell through the glass, letting that water pour into the tunnel.

"Fuck!" Alex exclaimed as he watched the one thing that could harm him pour through the walls.

"C'mon, we need to get out of here before this place fills up!" Jack yelled.

They turned to go back through the door, but it was sealed, and above it was a red sign saying "Airlock Active."

"Shit. That must be an emergency measure. C'mon, let's see if we can get past the plane," Jack said to Mercer, who simply nodded and ran towards it.

The plane appeared to be blocking their exit, but Alex, without thinking, simply grabbed the edges of it and shoved it out of his way, and then kept running. Jack gaped after him for a moment, then followed. Mercer turned a corner, and saw a door, but as he approahed it, it bulged out and water began spraying him. Directly ahead of him, however, was a small staircase with a number of fish flopping around on it and a door at the top. He and Jack ran up the stairs, and the door opened automatically. They entered another ruined room, this one leaking water through the door. On either side of a small hallway opened up two rooms which looked to have been lounges at some point. Across the hall was a closed door with another "Airlock Active" sign. To the left was a hollow tube about eight feet tall with electricity pulsing through it. Mercer walked over to it and looked at it. Above it was a sign that read "Vita-Chamber."

"Hey, Atlas. What's a Vita-Chamber?"

"That's a real marvel, lad. If you take lethal damage, and your body hasn't been too corrupted by splicing, it can use ADAM to completely heal you. Just climb inside and let it do its magic. Damn things made it near impossible to make any headway in the civil war before both sides started splicing up like mad."

"Wait, did you just say this thing can instantly restore your health? Completely?" _How long was I unconcious? I must have lain there for years, just regaining biomass._

"It's not quite instant, but pretty much. You can also heal yourself by eating. All the food we produced was made with ADAM, so it regenerates you a little. Our drinks were designed to give you more EVE, which is kind of like ammunition for ADAM. You can only use plasmids so much before your body starts to run low. An EVE hypo or a drink will refill that, although drinks and food only do a little bit. What you really want are EVE hypos and med kits."

"Holy... What year is it?" Mercer asked.

"Well, we haven't really kept track since things started going downhill, but the war started in '59, and it's been a little over a year."

"It's 2060? Holy shit."

"What? Have you gone daft, lad? It's 1960, not 2060."

Mercer froze.

"What did you just say?"


End file.
